SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Mike Benning got his first two NHL goals, Wilmer Skoog, Mikulas Hovorka and Ludvig Jansson all got their first NHL points, and the Florida Panthers closed out their injury-plagued season by routing the Detroit Red Wings 8-1 on Wednesday night.
Luke Kunin had two goals for Florida, while Vinnie Hinostroza, Cole Schwindt, Cole Reinhardt and A.J. Greer all also scored for the Panthers. Skoog, Marek Alscher and Matthew Tkachuk — playing for the first time since he and his wife welcomed their first child earlier this week — each finished with two assists.
Justin Faulk had the goal for Detroit.
It was the official end of a run that saw the Panthers reach three consecutive Stanley Cup Finals. They won the last two titles, but lost captain Aleksander Barkov in the first training camp practice of this season and wound up missing this year’s playoffs — succumbing to having more than a dozen regulars out of the lineup with injuries.
The Panthers finished 40-38-4 for 84 points. Daniil Tarasov stopped 24 shots in net for Florida, wrapping up his season at 13-15-3 as the backup to free-agent-to-be Sergei Bobrovsky (27-23-1).
John Gibson stopped 11 of 15 shots for Detroit, getting pulled midway through the second period. Cam Talbot finished in net for the Red Wings.
Detroit finished 41-31-10 for 92 points. Every other Red Wings team — all 27 of them — with at least 92 standings points had made the playoffs, albeit many of those trips came in eras that didn’t have the benefit of an extra point for shootout victories or overtime losses.
Of the 19 players the Panthers used in their season-opener — the night when the second consecutive Stanley Cup banner was raised — only five were in the lineup for the finale.
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